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Deans Council

Deans Council Meeting

B-120

March 14, 2012

 

Note:  At times, issues of confidentiality may require that some items discussed in these meetings be excluded from these minutes.

Members:  Bill Barnes, Dave Caudill, Tom Currin, Steve Hamrick, Ruston Hunt, Joyce Mills, Thomas Nelson, Jeff Orr, Nikki Palamiotis, Jeffrey Ray, Han Reichgelt, Zvi Szafran

Members Absent:  

 

Guests: 

 

Item 1. Updates

Dr. Szafran updated the Council on the following:

  • Complete College Georgia – workshop is next week.  Szafran has been asked to present our TCSG Articulation as a best practice example.
  • Reminded deans to be sure department chairs communicate to search committees that letters must be given to candidates at each step of the process for promotion/tenure/reappointment, etc.
  • Summer pay issues – Szafran suggests polling students to see what courses they want for summer, having a permanent schedule, etc. to ensure only courses with demand get offered, thereby increasing odds for faculty to earn full pay.
  • Book Sale – Joyce reported a profit of $914 for the two-day sale.  This year the Library came the closest ever to their goal of $1,000.
  • Piedmont Tech in South Carolina may be interested in joining our TCSG Articulation.  Dave Caudill and others are going to visit them to discuss possibilities.
  • Money has been transferred to the deans as discussed to support Polytechnic Summit and additional faculty travel.
  • Szafran suggested he and the deans meet with the new CIO at our next Deans Council meeting.  Agreed.
  • On-line Journals – Szafran asked the deans to review carefully any faculty submitting papers to dubious on-line journals and give guidance to their faculty about which ones are recognized by their disciplines.
  • The Deans Council meeting schedule will change soon.  Two meetings per month will be with the deans only, and two will be with expanded groups (deans + directors; ALC). 

 

Item 2. Capital Budget

Szafran is not absolutely sure of year-end money but wants to begin to spend capital budget now.  Starting this year, summer pay expenses and revenue will be allocated to the next fiscal year rather than the current one per the USG.  SPSU has elected to keep 67% of the expense and revenue in the current year and move 33% to the following fiscal year.  This will have no effect on faculty salaries.  Szafran asked each Council member to give him capital budget requests:

  • Library – the Library needs additional security cameras and will have an estimate soon
  • CSE – would like to make two labs multipurpose by changing the furniture - $25,000 for each lab; server for Data Center - $50,000.  He stated both are low priority.
  • A&S – computers and projectors for G 234 and G 235 - $15,000; if Psychology moves need office furniture for four and classroom furniture - $30,000
  • EU – Research Centers have submitted requests for funding.  Szafran denied them.
  • ENG – Bldg. G renovation (covered out of end-of-year money) no capital requests because there is nowhere to put any equipment.
  • ACM – distributed list.  First two items will be covered under end-of-year money, the rest out of capital - $80,000
  • Szafran stated that he put a prefab building with approximately 10,000 to 20,000 square feet to be put on a concrete slab to help temporarily relieve the space shortage on the end of year list.  This could be used for many purposes – swing space, storage for equipment such as the wind tunnel, competition teams, art studios, etc. until better space can be secured.
  • Graduate Studies had no requests but Nikki talked about the document management system previewed last week.  The start-up cost is approximately $100,000.  Szafran stated that this is on the end of year list. 
  • Szafran asked that each prepare departmental requests for their capital budget items and submit them to him as soon as possible.

Becky Rutherfoord stated that she met with Mark Nunes and Sarah Holliday about ENGL 1101 and will get the schedule out soon.

Currin requested that distance learning distributions be given to the school not their departments.

P&P on faculty searches is not consistent with what we’re doing.  Szafran suggested we bring this to the next ALC meeting for discussion.

Include the CIO in next week’s meeting.

 

Item 3. Offices for Next Year

Szafran stated he has not received updates from everyone and can’t move forward until he has data from all.

 

Item 4. Evaluation of Department Chairs

Nelson stated the P&P is not clear and inconsistent and asked what others are doing.  Reichgelt and Currin shared how they evaluate their chairs.

 

 

Item 5. Automatic Enforcement of Pre-Requisites

It was asked if it is possible to have an automatic way to enforce prerequisites.  Currently the Math department does it manually and removes students enrolled for the next course who do not pass the pre-requisite course but this is difficult and takes a lot of time.  Hamrick stated that we don’t have anything now that can do this but that there is a module in Banner called Workflow that can.  The cost would be about $60,000 - $70,000.  Zvi will look into it as well as possible unanticipated consequences of using such a system to change students’ schedules.  Hamrick will talk to Kennesaw to see how this is working for them. 

 

Item 6. Compensation for Large Courses

Postponed until next week’s meeting.

 

 

Item 7. New Business

  • Should priority registration be given to ROTC students?  Approved.
  • Faculty compensation – Szafran stated that one faculty member in a department has been identified as being unfairly paid relative to the other faculty and asked each dean to review the faculty in their school and identify any being paid very differently than the others and to let him know of true inequities only.
  • Faculty have been sent a survey to complete on the grade forgiveness policy.  Szafran encouraged the deans to discuss this issue with their faculty.
  • Hunt distributed a draft Digital Humanities Center proposal to the deans and asked for comments.  All Centers are up for review and will be done soon.
  • Need final vote on Academic Program Review P&P

 

Meeting adjourned at 4:17 P.M.

 

 

Items for future meeting:

  • P&P on faculty searches – ALC
  • Compensation for large courses
  • Intellectual property
  • Omitting unnecessary/outdated/duplicate P&Ps